As my sister and I were waiting for a Q&A to begin, we watched celebrity guests Dan Southworth and Reuben Langdon demonstrating some stunt choreography. Dan Southworth is best known as Eric the Red Quantum Ranger from Power Rangers Time Force and Reuben Langdon was a stunt man for the same series.

The main example featured was the two basic punches, the jab and the cross. First for safety, make sure that both opponents are arms length away from each other, touching fingertips. When delivering punches, you don’t punch straight forward like a boxer. For the camera you have to make the punch wider, like a hook, so it’s more visible. Those on the recieving end have to also make the reaction bigger. Not just with moving your head loosely, but with hip movement.

You also have to make sure that the moves aren’t done too quickly, otherwise the opponent won’t know how to react to each blow. I don’t know how Jackie Chan does it. Dan Southworth also mentioned that falling down for a fight scene can be very difficult. He recalled one time that he had to land on his back for a fight scene. When he did that, it was hard for him to breathe for a moment. After recovering, he had to do it again. You know how it is with filming, a lot of things have to be repeated many times.

Then there was audience participation for those basic moves. I didn’t get involved, but with my tae-kwon-do experience I was able to understand the process more easily. It’s definitely a team effort, even with basic moves.

Anime Festival Orlando 11 was awesome. I can’t wait to see what they have next year!